A Smudge

The glorious vaulted ceiling of Grand Central is an impressive 125 feet high and is 275 feet long by 120 feet wide. Every day, 750,000 people pass under its star constellations. On a holiday, this number grows to well over a million. Commuters rush through the terminal to catch Metro North trains to their destinations in Upstate New York and Connecticut or they go down the escalator to the modern Long Island Railroad Station.

I see the tourists gawking and taking pictures by The Clock as I rush with hundreds of commuters to gate 33 for the train to Cold Spring. The out-of-towners lift their eyes to the stars, searching the large space for a tiny 9 x 18-inch black rectangle that mostly comes from cigarette smoke. If they look long enough, they’ll find the sooty smudge in the corner where I exit to my gate. The ceiling is scrubbed clean of its grime except for the spot that shows how dirty the whole once was, a time when the stars did not shine.

I awoke this morning with the verse in 1 John 1:5 NIV: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” On the heels of the verse came a picture of the small, small smudge on the Grand Central ceiling. The Spirit impressed me that there is no darkness if I walk in the light of God. None. Not even one tiny smudge.

Berniece

PS “Faith is leaving my loved ones problems to God to solve.” With this, the smudge disappears and there is only Light.